Update: Despite being denied direct media access to Occupy L.A. demonstrations at City Hall by the Los Angeles Police Department, Patch is on the ground to cover the eviction of demonstrators early Wednesday morning.
Follow our Live Stream above for coverage, and head over Twitter to follow @HighlandPatch, @EchoParkPatch and @90041Rock for live updates between 11:30 p.m and midnight while our sites our down for maintenance.
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Patch editors were excluded from a media pool drafted by the Los Angeles Police Department on Monday evening, denying editors the ability to cover the Occupy Los Angeles demonstrations around City Hall themselves.
Instead, they must rely on coverage from other media organizations who were selected at a meeting Monday night from which they were excluded.
At 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Patch editors received an e-mail from the LAPD, announcing that a meeting would be held in the Downtown station's COMPSTAT room at 7:15 p.m. that same evening to "discuss media issues related to the Occupy LA closure." The e-mail added—crucially—that the LAPD "will also conduct a lottery to select 'pool media' for consideration in future Occupy LA activity."
The e-mail went on to state that "any outlet interested in being considered for the pool must have a representative attend this meeting, no exceptions."
Echo Park Patch editor Anthea Raymond, a former editor at National Public Radio West and a former L.A. Press Club president, was denied access to the meeting for not possessing an LAPD-issued press badge.
Officers at the desk, in the process of changing shifts, looked skeptically at her Patch business card and said an LAPD-issued credential was required to attend all meetings held at police headquarters.
Patch still intends to cover the events at Occupy L.A. as they unfold.
